Sanitary urinary appliance



June 25, 1957 A. JOHNSON SANITARY URINARY APPLIANCE Filed June 28, 1954 INVENTOR ALBERT JOHNSON ATTORNEYS United States Patent SANITARY URINARY APPLIANCE Albert Johnson, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application June 28, 1954, Serial No. 439,499

2 Claims. (Cl. 128-294) This invention has to do with sanitary urinary appliances and has as an object the provision of a sanitary urinary device adapted to be worn by women afilicted with urological ailments which render them unable to control the release of urine.

More particularly it is an object of my invention to provide, in conjunction with a suitable storage member, a liquid collecting member which snugly engages the crotch of the wearer and provides a trough-like passageway to direct the passage of liquid into the receptacle.

Another object is to provide a device of this character which is highly sanitary, and comfortable to wear, and economical to manufacture.

Without intending thereby to limit the broader scope of my invention, except as may appear from the appended claims, I shall now describe in detail a presently preferred embodiment thereof, for which purpose I shall refer to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing my device;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation with part broken away and part shown in section;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section taken on line 44 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings, numeral 5 denotes the storage element, 6 denotes the collecting element, and 7 the suspending straps by which the device is sus pended from the body of the wearer.

The storage member 5 comprises a bag composed of flexible water-proof material such as plastic or rubber, and has a reduced outlet 16 normally closed as by a conventional screw plug 18. The bag is divided into a lower liquid storage chamber 20 and an upper inlet chamber 21 by means of a partition member 25.

Member 25 is composed of two flexible, waterproof sheets 26, 27, preferably of plastic, secured together along their side edge portions 28 as by heat sealing, sheets 26 and 27 being secured only along their top edges to the side walls of the receptacle as by heat sealing shown at 29, so that the top of the partition member is open. As by heat sealing 30, the bottom of the partition member is formed into two outlet necks 31, 32 which hang suspended in the receptacle with their side walls being normally collapsed against each other whereby to provide valves preventing reverse-flow of liquid from chamber 20 to chamber 21.

The inlet end 35 of the bag is preferably oval in crosssection, being maintained in that shape by a stiffening member 36 mounted as will be hereinafter described. The stiffening member may be made of a relatively stifl plastic material or any other suitable material.

The collecting member 6 consists of two somewhat crescent shaped strips 40, 41 of flexible water-proof material, preferably plastic, secured together, as by heat sealing, along their bottom marginal portions 43 and presenting flange portions 44, 45 together defining an outlet opening 46. The flange portions 44, are secured to the inlet end of the bag and said stifiening member 36, the latter being secured to the flange portions as by a suitable adhesive.

The top edge portions of the strips 40, 41 curve inwardly at to accommodate the legs of the wearer. Thus, the strips 40, 41 together define an elongated trough open at its top and being disposed to direct the flow of liquid into the inlet end of the bag, from whence it passes by gravity flow into chamber 21, thence through the necks 31, 32 into the storage chamber 20, from which it may not return.

For suspending the device from the waist of the wearer I provide a waist-encircling belt and suitable suspending straps 61, 62. Straps 62 are preferably secured to the belt by means of an adjustable buckle 64 while the bottom ends of the straps 61, 62 are preferably secured to the member 6 by conventional snap fasteners. A conventional adjustable buckle 65 is provided to adjust the length of the belt. In use, the member 6 is held in snug engagement with the crotch of the wearer by means of the belt and straps while the bag depends between the legs of the wearer. An anchor strap having suitable adjustable fastening means may be inserted through a loop 71 aflixed to the bag as by heat sealing, and this strap may be used to anchor the bag to a leg of the wearer.

Thus, the liquid passageway is defined by the collecting member 6 which directs the flow into the receptacle and finally into storage chamber 20 from which it may be released when desired by removal of the plug 18.

I claim:

1. In a sanitary urinary device for women, a flexible, water-proof bag having an inlet neck at its top end, an

elongated urine collecting receptable comprised of apair of juxtaposed elongated flexible water-proof strips secured together along their bottom edge portions and disposed in diverging V-shaped relationship thereabove whereby to provide a V-shaped drainage trough, said receptacle having an outlet neck between its ends secured to and in communication with said inlet neck, and strap means for supporting said receptacle in position with the top edge portions of said walls in snug engagement with the crotch of a wearer, said bag having between its ends wall means dividing it into an upper inlet chamber and a lower storage chamber, and valve means coop crating with said wall means automatically to permit flow of urine from said inlet chamber to said storage chamber but to prevent reverse flow of said urine.

2. In a sanitary urinary device for women, a flexible, water-proof bag having an inlet neck at its top end, an elongated urine collecting receptacle comprised of a pair of juxtaposed elongated flexible water-proof strips secured together along their bottom edge portions and disposed in diverging V-shaped relationship thereabove whereby to provide a V-shaped drainage trough, said receptacle having an outlet neck between its ends secured to and in communication with said inlet neck, and strap means for supporting said receptacle in position with the top edge portions of said walls in snug engagement with the crotch of a wearer, and stiffening means cooperating with said outlet neck and said inlet neck to maintain them in substantially ovate cross-section.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,640,484 Johnson June 2, 1953 2,648,335 Chambers Aug. 11, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 448,698 Great Britain June 11, 1936 

